The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-05-05
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Special Discourse to Store Clerks
and Their Customers.
The Early Trials of the Future salesman
Patience and Submission to DsciP4
line Necessary-The Faults Of En-
ployers-Some Mean Customers.

/ ployers-Some Mean Customers.
| For the subject of a recent discourse at
the Brooklyn Tabernacle, Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage chose: .Behind the Counter;
or, Trials and Encouragements of Sales
men and Saleswomen." He took the two
/ following passages as his texts
And certain woman named Lydia, seller
! ofpurple, Of the City Of Thyatira, which wor
SHIPPED God, heard US, whose heart the Lord
/ opened.-Acts XVIII
/ Scest though a man dilgent in his business:
He shall stand before Kings.-Proverbs xxi,
! %.
The first passage introduces to you
! Lydia, Christian merchantess. Her busi-
| ness is to deal in purple cloths or silks.
/ She is not giggling nonentity, but prac-
! teal woman, not ashamed to work for her
| living. All the other women of Phllippi
and Thyatra have been forgotten; but
| God has made immortal in our text Lydia,
the Christian sales woman.
The other text shows you man with
head, and hand, and heart, and foot, all
busy toiling on up until he gains a prince
| ly success.
Seest thou q man diligent in his business He
shall stand before Kings.
Great encouragement in these two pas
sages for men and women who will be
busy, but no solace for those who are
waiting for good luck to show them, at
| the foot of the rain bow, Casket of buried
gold.
1t is folly for anybody in this world TO
wait for something to turn up. 1t will
turn down. The law of thrift is as in
exorable as the law of the tides. Fortune,
| the magician, may wave her arm in that
direction until castles and palaces come;
but she WILL after awhile, invert the same
wand and all the splendors will vanish
into thin air There are certain styles of
behavior which leal to usefulness, honor
and permanent success, and there are
certain styles of behavior which lead to
dust, dishonor and moral default. l would
like TO fire the ambition of young people.
l have no sympathy with those who
would prepare young folks for life by
| whiting down their expectations. That
| man or woman will be worth nothing to
church or State who begins life cowed
| down. The business of Christianity is not
to quench but to direct human ambition.
! Therefore it is that / come out this m orn-
| ing and utter words of en- couragement to
those who are occupied as clerks in the
stores, and shops, and banking houses Of
| the country
In the first place, l counsel clerks to re-
member that for the most part their
clcrkship is only a school from which
they are to be graduated. 1t takes about
eight years to get one of the learned pro-
| LESSONS 1t takes about eight years to
get to be merchant Some of you will
be clerks all your liyos, but the vast ma
| jority of you are only in transient posi-
| tion. After awhile, some December day,
the head men of the firm will call you in
to the back Office, and they will say to
you:
Now. you have done we'll by us; we
are going to do well by you. We invite
you to have an interest in our concern"
You will bow to that edict very grace
fully. Getting into street car to go
home, an old comrade will meet you and
say:
'What makes you look so happy to-
nlght!"
oh" you will say, nothing, nothing"
| But in few days your name will bios
som on the sign. Either IN the store or
| bank where you are now, or in some store
| or bank, you will take a higher position
| than that which you now occupy. So |
| feel to-day that / am standing be.
fore people who will yet have
| their hand on the helm of the
worlds commerce, and you will turn it
this way or that; now clerks, but to be
| bankers, importers, insurance company
directors, shippers, contractors, superin-
tendents OF railroads-your voice mighty
"on Outstanding foremost in the
| great financial and religious enterprises
of the day. For, though we who are in
the professions may, on the platform,
plead for the philanthropies, after all the
| merchants must come with their mill ions
| to sustain the movement.
Be, therefore, patient and dilgent in
this transient position. You are now
| where you can learn things you can never
learn in any other place. What you con-
slider your disadvantages are your grand
opportunity You see an aff1uent father
some day come down on prominent
street with his son, who has just gradu-
ated from the university, and establish
ing him in business, putting 5000 900 of
| capital in the store. Well, you are env-
Gus. You say
40, if l only had chance like that
young man-if l only had a father to put
100000 in business for me, then would
| have some chance in the world.'
Be not envious. You have advantages
over that young man which he has not
over you. AS well might come down to
| the docks when vessel is about to sail
for Valparaiso, and say;
Let me pilot this ship out of the Mar
rows"
why, would sink crew and cargo be-
fore got out of the harbor, simply be-
cause l know nothing about pilotage
The second counsel have to give to the
| clerks who are here to-day, is that you
seek out what are the lawful regulations
of your establishment, and then submit
to them. Every well ordered house has
it's usages. In military life, on ships
deck, in commercial life, there must be
order and discipline. Those people who
do not learn how to obey, will never know
how to command. / will tell you what
young man will reach ruin, financial and
moral; it is the young man who thrusts his
| thumb into his vest and says:
''Nobody shall die tate to me, am my own
master; l will not submit to the regula-
tions of this house"
Between an establishment in which all
the employees are under thorough dis
| cipline and the establishment in which
the employees do about as they choose, is
the difference between success and fail
ure-between rapid accumulation and
utter bankruptcy. Do not come to the
| store ten minutes after the time. Be there
within two seconds after. Do not think
any thing too Insignificant to do we'll Do
not say:
Again, l counsel clerks in this house TO
search out what are the unlawful and
dishonest demands of an establishment
| and resist them. In the six thousand
4 hut haE